Cheryl Brooks is a critical care nurse by night and a romance writer by day. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America. She is the author of The Cat Star Chronicles series and lives with her husband, two sons, four cats, two horses and two dogs in rural Indiana.

CB: I grew up in Louisville, KY and I’ve been a critical care nurse since 1977, graduating from the Kentucky Baptist Hospital School of Nursing in 1976. I met my husband that year and married him in 1979. I then went on to earn a BSN from Indiana University in 1986. I was pregnant with my eldest son Mike, when I graduated, and my youngest son, Sam was born about a month before we moved to rural Indiana in 1989. I’d had horses as a kid and was looking forward to raising them when we finally got a farm of our own. I did that on a small scale for several years, but then writing took over my life. Right now, I’m holding at two horses, four cats, and two crazy dogs, Bugsy and Peaches. I’ve worked full-time in nursing ever since I graduated, but have recently cut back to part-time to allow more time for my writing. My other interests include cooking, gardening, singing and guitar playing.

I’ve been writing in earnest since 2004, and I self-published a book titled, If You Could Read My Mind, writing as Samantha R. Michaels in 2006. Slave (2008) was the first of my books to be published by Sourcebooks Casablanca, and has since been followed by Warrior, Rogue, Outcast, Fugitive, Hero, and Virgin.Stud is the current release, to be followed by Wildcat in February 2013. Also, in June, 2011, I self-published an ebook titled Sex, Love, and a Purple Bikini. I’ve contributed stories to The Sextet Anthologies for Siren/Bookstrand, but have since gone solo with an erotic novella titled Small, Medium, & Large; A Toy Story, which is due to be released in April 2012.

MBA&M: Why write an erotic paranormal romance series?

CB: I fell in love with sci-fi as a kid watching Star Trek, but it always bugged me that Captain Kirk always got the girl, rather than Mr. Spock, whom I considered to be the more interesting character. Then Star Wars came out, and yes, there was romance, but it was more of a subplot than the main focus of the story. I wanted a romantic sci-fi series, but unlike the romance novels of that time, I wanted it hot and explicit without all the flowery euphemisms that, to be perfectly honest, I found irritating. So that’s what I wrote!

MBA&M: What where the challenges in writing “Stud”?

CB: Unlike many of the books in this series that mainly had my imagination as their source, I had to do some research for Stud. If you check out the acknowledgements in the back of the book, you’ll see what I mean. I studied videos about everything from making primitive weapons to how to make tools from deer antlers.

MBA&M: When writing “The Cat Star Chronicles”, how did the stories come to be and how many will be in this series?

CB: When I first began writing this series, I envisioned Cat, the hero of the first book, Slave, to be the last of a species whose life span was two hundred years or more. I planned to follow him through the various loves of his life, but when I sold the story to Sourcebooks, my editor nixed that idea. Her suggestion was that Cat was not the last of his kind, and that there were others like him scattered throughout the galaxy. So I came up with the idea of six comrades in arms who were captured near the end of the war in which their planet was destroyed and sold into slavery. I had already started writing Warrior as an earlier episode in Cat’s life, but turned it into a story about a new hero, Leo. For that book, I wanted a more historical feel, and set it on a planet colonized by people who shunned modern advances and eventually devolved into a feudal society, complete with knights on horseback and a line of healing witches, including the heroine, Tisana. Book three, Rogue, is about two brothers who were sold as a pair to the reptilian queen of a desert world. With the intention of breeding more of them while at the same time increasing the cultural diversity of her people, the queen hires a young woman from Earth to teach piano to the princess. Book four, Outcast, is more of a western frontier saga, with a pioneer heroine and a rather tortured hero who was originally sold as a slave to keep a group of harem women happy. Book five, Fugitive, tells the story of the one member of the group who escaped prior to being sold and has been on the run ever since. He’s living like Tarzan in the wilds of Barada Seven until a wildlife artist named Drusilla arrives to paint the native birds. Book six, Hero, focuses on the brother in Rogue who didn’t get the girl. This time he not only wins the heart of Micayla, the last Zetithian woman in existence, but helps bring the nemesis of the Zetithian race to justice. At the end of Hero, a refugee ship lands with over a hundred Zetithians aboard. Books seven through nine, Virgin, Stud, and Wildcat (which is due to release in February 2013) follow three of those refugees and the paths their lives take now that they are free and the threat to their kind has been eliminated. I could write more, but so far, I’m only contracted for a total of nine books.

MBA&M: How hard is it to continue with a series with a lot of books in the storyline?

CB: The trouble with this sort of series is that the places and character names and the various alien species are hard to keep track of. If I’d had any sense at all, I’d have created an ongoing list of characters and descriptions, but I only do it for each book, and I find myself actually having to re-read parts of the earlier books. Because Stud is set in the same locale as Outcast, I had to go back and study several chapters.

MBA&M: If you could switch places with one of the characters in your books, who would it be and why?

CB: I would love to be Captain Jack from Slave, but Tisana’s character in Warrior actually comes the closest to being me. Jack is adventurous, outspoken, and strong. She’s the person inside me that’s trying to get out. Unfortunately, the rest of me isn’t a match for her personality.

MBA&M: Of all your books in The Cat Star Chronicles so far, which is your favorite and why?

CB: The current book is always my favorite, because as the series has moved on, I have also moved on as a writer. My earlier books were fun, and I love them all, but I can recognize the fact that they aren’t as well-written as my later efforts. I didn’t go into this venture as a polished, highly-trained writer, and have gotten a lot of on the job training.

MBA&M: Please tell our readers where to find you and where Stud is available?

CB: I began writing to relieve the stress of nursing, therefore, even though there are adventures and a few bad guys throughout the series, focusing on the dark side of fiction with all of its evil and suffering was never my intention. My goal was to have fun and enjoy the romance as it develops between my hero and heroine.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to visit with us and our readers today!!

CB: Thanks so much for having me here on My Book Addiction and More! It’s always a pleasure to visit!

MBA&M:THANK YOU FOR VISITING WITH US AGAIN. IT IS ALWAYS A PLEASURE TO HAVE YOU VISIT WITH US AND OUR READERS!!!

STUD BY CHERYL BROOKS – IN STORES FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Mass Market Paperback:416 pages

Publisher:Sourcebooks Casablanca (February 7, 2012)

Language:English

ISBN-10:1402251688

ISBN-13: 978-1402251689

(FROM THE PUBLISHER)

They’re galaxies apart…

Even for a Zetithian, Tarq Zulveidinoe’s sexual prowess is legendary. Believing it’s all he’s good for, Tarq sets out to perpetuate his threatened species by offering his services to women across the galaxy…

But one force can bring them together…

Lucinda Force is the sensitive dark horse in a self-absorbed family, repeatedly told that no man will ever want such a plain woman. Lucy longs for romance, but is resigned to her loveless lot in life—until Tarq walks through the door of her father’s restaurant on Talus Five…

**Now dear readers go forth and tweet,facebook,blog,linked and anywhere else you can about Cheryl Brooks’ “Stud”**

***GIVEAWAY***

**Sponsored by the publisher**

Thanks to Danielle,at Sourcebooks,Inc. we are offering 2 lucky commenters a print copy of “Stud” by Cheryl Brooks.(2 winners,1 book each).Open to U.S. and Canada residents only. No P.O. Boxes,please. Giveaway to run from today February 16 until February 23,2012. Please remember to leave your email address with your comment.

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if any of u out there have not read these books u dont no what your missing i get so lost in these books my hubby cant wait for me to be done reading them he is a very happy man my fav book is fugitive i would love to go there lol but jack is my fav character and cat is my my fav Zetithian cheryl your the best

Hey, Cheryl! Another great post. Love interviews when we can get to know the author better. Stud looks fantastic. Can I please set him on a shelf just to look at for day. I promise I’ll keep my drooling bib on and not get slobbers on him.